Mo Tianliao did not have a flying sword, so he simply walked down the mountain road.
There was a problem with the teletransportation array so the cultivators may have been thrown anywhere. He was going in the wrong direction, if he were to fly on a sword, he would be very conspicuous. Right now, the sects could not even maintain their façade of friendship, he was not planning on becoming a flying target.
Before he had reached the foot of the mountain a buzzing noise came; Mo Tianliao quickly condensed a circle of flames around his whole body.
In a flash, countless black flying insects came at his face, accompanied by a great force which instantly dragged Mo Tianliao’s body.
Like a hurricane, the black bugs kept rushing into his defence shield and were killed again and again by the flames around him. The dragging force suddenly stopped; everything was pitch-dark for a moment before suddenly becoming clear again. Mo Tianliao found himself in a deep and secluded valley, surrounded by exuberant nature. It was gorgeous, yet Mo Tianliao could not help frowning.
There was no such place anywhere near Duantian’s Mo Palace, so that meant that this was an illusion array, everything before his eyes was false.
There was no illusion component in his Great Mountain Guarding Array proper, but there was a small illusion array that appeared after one crossed the large array. In other words, that meant that the Great Mountain Guarding Array was not working in this place!
If it was not working here, there would be many places where it was not working. If the large array was not activated as soon as possible, the rats would enter his home!
Suddenly, a striking sound came from behind, breaking the silence. Mo Tianliao immediately raised his hand and erected a wood wall in front of him.
A spiritual sword passed through the wall; Mo Tianliao jumped up to look behind the barrier and saw a terrifying monster brandishing a sword.
This was the characteristic feature of Duantian’s illusion array, misdirection. When the sounds, air currents or spiritual force indicating an attack occurred inside the illusion array, in reality the threat was coming from the opposite direction. This was because he had superimposed many other arrays inside this one, which included echo, reflection and so on, to ensure anyone inside would become disoriented.
“Roaaaaar!” The monster charged at Mo Tianliao again.
Mo Tianliao aimed at the monster’s lingtai and used the power of his Half-Immortal divine soul to stun it.
The monster stared blankly for a moment, shook its head and slowly turned into a Qingyun Sect disciple wearing a blue Taoist robe.
“Ah! So it was a fellow cultivator from Woyun Sect!” The man tidied his clothes and cupped his hands to greet him.
Mo Tianliao pursed his mouth, this illusion array required both parties to recognize each other as human beings before they could see each other’s true appearance. He had not known whether this “monster” was someone from Woyun Sect and he had been afraid of accidentally injuring da-shixiong and the rest, that was the only reason he had not simply killed him. Someone must have touched the illusion array within ten zhangs of him and ended up dragging him into trouble.
“Are there others with you?” Mo Tianliao was still hiding under his cloak, not showing his face, but because everyone had seen him before, he could still be recognized at a glance.
“There are four more fellow cultivators, three from the demonic sects and one from Liuyun Sect,” the man said with a worried face. “I am Chao Fan, if I may ask–”
“Quiet!” Mo Tianliao ignored him. “Follow me if you want to live.”
After saying that, he stopped paying attention to the man and headed straight into the peach flower grove that was ahead.
From deep in the grove, there came the sound of playful laughter, it was very soft and sweet, obviously a woman’s voice. Passing through the grove, Mo Tianliao stopped when he found an area with several exquisite stone tables and benches which were covered in delicious food and wine; three women wearing gauzy pink silk skirts were surrounding a shivering man.
The man was large and ugly, while the three women had exquisite figures and comely looks.
“Hey you two, are you here to play with us?” One of the women looked back, when she saw the pair of them, her face was instantly suffused with joy, her somewhat coquettish eyes becoming even more enticing thanks to her smile.
Chao Fan started to drool, the women he usually met were either honourable and demure female cultivators or seductive temptresses from the Demonic Path. He had never met someone like this, who clearly had a beautiful and elegant appearance like that of a lovely celestial maiden, yet at the same time also possessed a sort of innate submissive charm capable to drive any man crazy.
Unconsciously nodding, Chao Fan took two steps toward the woman. With a giggle, she came closer and put her arms around his waist.
A different woman came to tangle herself around Mo Tianliao, he narrowed his eyes, looked at the delicately trembling mountain of a man, then he slapped the pestering woman away.
She immediately displayed a look of resentment on her face.
Mo Tianliao raised his hand to summon Taishi, turned it into a sword, and slashed directly at the woman.
She was surprised and quickly pulled out a normal weapon in order to block, it was a nine-ring broadsword that looked comically incongruous given her petite size.
The nine-ring broadsword clashed with Taishi, the tortoiseshell-coloured divine sword, and immediately split in two. The woman’s face became full of astonishment.
Mo Tianliao lifted his sword, he had been trying to gently hit between the woman’s eyebrows, but due to the sword’s strength, he ended up almost piercing through.
With a scream, the woman changed into a burly man who was seven chi tall, while the other beauty holding Chao Fan also transformed into a huge and bearded demonic cultivator.
The rough-looking demonic cultivator and the plain-faced Chao Fan who had been embracing looked at each other, then both jumped away with a cry. The ugly man who had been surrounded became a female cultivator dressed in a white Taoist robe with flowing clouds.
“This array is called ‘anti’, everything you see while inside it is the opposite of reality,” Mo Tianliao said, ignoring the shock and horror of the four people. “The focus of the array is the only person who doesn’t change once the array is disturbed.”
The words had barely been said when they were immediately turning to look at a woman who still looked enchantingly beautiful.
The woman was startled, she shrieked and at the same time the beautiful scenery around them transformed into a bottomless chasm. Mo Tianliao changed his sword into a bow and shot a tortoiseshell-coloured arrow in the opposite direction of where the woman was escaping to, but strangely, the arrow seemed to warp through the space and hit the woman’s chest.
Instantly, everything in front of them collapsed, then light flashed in front of their eyes and what came into view was a rocky mountain. A demonic cultivator painted like an evil spirit fell to the ground, his face frozen in a rictus of terror, there were countless black bugs stuck to his body.
“Ahhh!” The female cultivator from Liuyun Sect screamed, she had found out that her whole body was also surrounded by bugs, only because she had been on high alert guarding against the demonic cultivators and had surrounded herself with a defensive shield was she saved from being eaten by bugs.
All this time, the defensive flames around Mo Tianliao had never been extinguished.
“He is dead,” Mo Tianliao said, staring at the motionless cultivator from the Thousand Ghosts Sect.
“Once the magic array is activated, poisonous insects are released at the same time. Duantian was truly cunning and cruel,” Chao Fan said while gnashing his teeth.
The Liuyun Sect woman nodded; it was indeed too frightful. People inside the illusion array could not perceive reality at all and these bugs were so terrible that if one were to be the slightest bit careless death was certain.
The two demonic cultivators were even more terrified. Just now, the female cultivator, Chao Fan and Mo Tianliao had all seemed like unparalleled beauties, they had been about to relax and enjoy themselves for a while. If they had really tried to have fun, they suspected that they would have been bit by the bugs until not even the bones were left.
“You break into someone else’s house and don’t expect rat traps?” Mo Tianliao sneered and took out a mid-grade lingshi from his storage bracelet.
“What did you say?” The people froze, then turned to look at the cloaked Mo Tianliao.
“If you don’t like rat traps, I’ll just have to give you a rat cage.” Mo Tianliao said, and embedded the lingshi in his hand into an indentation on the mountain wall, then he quickly took off on his flying sword.
The trap array on the mountain wall activated and everyone was captured.
Mo Tianliao dusted off his hands, past caring whether he became a target or not, he rushed towards the entrance of Duantian’s Mo Palace.
The towering gate was embedded between two cliffs which were a hundred zhang high and was made of red crystal. Although it was called a gate, there was no door, the whole space was simply blocked by a piece of crystal, there was no way in. The crystal was transparent, and gave off a red glow in the sun. Through it, the long mountain road on the other side seemed to be drenched in blood, it was a terrifying sight.
The front entrance was unadorned, it had no engravings or memorial arches, there were only a few rocks, which made it look very desolate. A slender beauty in a snow-coloured robe sat quietly on a boulder, his head bowed and his feet buried in the fluffy fur of the tiger at his feet.
The beauty’s white clothes and the tiger’s colourful stripes were the only touches of colour amid the bleakness of the landscape.
“Why haven’t you gone in?” Mo Tianliao walked over and touched the top of Qingtong’s head. All the arrays in the Mo Palace recognized Mo Xiaozhao.
Qingtong lifted his head and said nothing, just stared at him quietly.
That exquisite and cold face, when seen from this position, did not seem as aloof and remote as usual, instead, it seemed to carry an air of grievance and innocence. Mo Tianliao felt his heart go squishy at the sight, he slowly reached out and caressed the side of his face. “Did you not dare to go in alone?”
In the past three hundred years, Qingtong had never once set foot inside Duantian’s Mo Palace. Not out of any sort of scruple, but simply because he did not want to go back home alone.
Qingtong still did not talk, he slowly lowered his eyes, and after a few moments extended his hands towards Mo Tianliao bit by bit.
Mo Tianliao’s heart melted when he saw the gesture. He bent down, let the pair of slender hands wrap around his neck, and lifted him into his arms. “Baby, let’s go home together.”
The big tiger rug’s jaw dropped and it lay frozen for a good long while. Until he saw the figure of the two men going into the transparent crystal gate which engulfed them like water. Only then did he start to run, he bit the hem of Mo Tianliao’s clothes and was dragged inside.
“Shocking! Sect’s Weekly Gossip Magazine Special Edition- Mo Palace Expedition”
Headline: The Mo Palace research team has arrived at the site; they vow to protect this Taixuan continent structure and uphold their ideals of murder and looting
Focus: An unknown rat-catching task force has appeared near the outskirts of the Mo Palace; the situation of the research team seems worrying
Extra: The relationship between Qingtong Zhenren and his disciple keeps getting more suggestive, they were seen entering the Mo Palace and getting a room together
Note: Frontline correspondent Colourful Tiger has been silenced and is unable to send back pictures. Please make do with your own imagination
Unedited, please point out any mistakes
This chapter had some typos which made it kind of hard to figure out what was going on so it may be more inaccurate than usual